Authors — Scott Macaulay
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TRAILER WATCH: “BELLFLOWER”
We have an interview with Bellflower director Evan Glodell in the next issue of Filmmaker, and he talks about finessing this trailer with Oscilloscope until it was the best it can be. Check it out. The film is a real Sundance discovery, a twisted relationship drama from a filmmaker who, in our piece, says he didn’t even really know what a film festival was before he popped his DVD in the mail to the Park City programmers. What I liked about the film: its raw emotional immediacy. This is a film about a break-up, and the movie itself feels pretty […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 14, 2011 -
MEDAGLIA’S “KITTY, KITTY” ON VODO
Filmmaker webmaster Michael Medaglia is also a talented director; I really liked his short, Kitty, Kitty — an eerie piece of psychological horror that reminded me of early Cronenberg. Here’s how he describes it: Kitty, Kitty is a short film about love, cats and brain parasites. The disturbing short was inspired by Toxoplasmosis, a disease caused by a brain parasite that can change human behavior and is believe to affect up to a third of the world population. This weekend Medaglia released the film for free on VODO.net, a website that turns filesharing and torrents into a legitimate distribution avenue […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 14, 2011 -
TRAILER WATCH: “PARIAH”
Dee Rees’ powerful gay-themed drama has been one of our favorite film projects of the last few years. The film went through the IFP Narrative Lab, and two of its principals — writer/director Rees and d.p. Bradford Young — appeared on our “25 New Faces” list. So, we were thrilled when the film was picked up at Sundance by Focus Features and Rees was given a development deal. Focus has just released the trailer, which I’ve embedded below. And see my piece on Rees from the 2008 25 New Faces list and Jason Guerrasio’s on Young from the 2009 list.
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 13, 2011 -
Is the DSLR Dead ?
I ordered the much sought-after Panasonic GH2 camera in February, and I just got it last week. And now, only a few days later, the DSLR is declared dead! Okay, I’m being a bit facetious here, as is, I think, Michael Murie over at his Notes on Video blog, which I linked to in the above paragraph. Or maybe not… As he notes in a series of links and excerpts, the professional community is now backing away from the camera format that was being celebrated everywhere — including Filmmaker — just a few months ago. He writes: The DSLR community […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 9, 2011 -
BRITISH LOVE FOR NEW THEATRICAL MODELS
Last night I attended a pre-opening for the new Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center at Lincoln Center. It’s a gorgeous space with two theaters that are both modern but possessing of a classic arthouse vibe. Seeing Manhattan and An Affair to Remember unspooling threw me back to the Golden Age of NYC rep that I experienced in my college years. Particularly exciting was the space that lies in the middle — an airy auditorium with raked bench seating and the world’s largest plasma screen TV. Screenings will be held in this space as well as lectures, Q&As and community events. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 9, 2011 -
Introducing Our New Genre Column, Lady Vengeance
Today on the site we introduce Farihah Zaman’s new column devoted to genre cinema, “Lady Vengeance.” I’ve long wanted a place on this site dedicated to genre cinema and was happy when Farihah proposed tackling it. Some of you will know her byline from columns and articles posted at Reverse Shot and The Huffington Post. Here at Filmmaker she’ll be appearing every Friday covering genre films of all stripes and sizes, from the mega-blockbusters to the indie, micro and foreign-language titles that contain much of science fiction, fantasy and horror’s new energy. Her piece today, “Revenge of the Nerds,” is […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 30, 2011 -
TRAILER WATCH: “THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO”
Bootleg or viral marketing? I assumed the former, but now there’s some chatter that it may be the latter. In any case I would have loved my first glimpse of David Fincher’s new film to be of a higher quality than this shot-off-the-screen Euro redband trailer. UPDATE: The redband trailer has been taken down. Here’s the greenband trailer. Oh, for more of star Rooney Mara, see my piece on her when we selected her as one of our “25 New Faces of 2009.”
by Scott Macaulay on May 30, 2011 -
PRODUCTION DESIGNER JACK FISK ON WORKING WITH TERRENCE MALICK
Last year Alicia Van Couvering sat down with Jack Fisk, Terrence Malick’s longtime production designer. Here’s a brief excerpt, and the full piece is at the link. Terry and I have developed a relationship where we just go and look at locations together, for weeks, and that way we kind of get in sync on a picture. And then he says, “Whatever you do will be fine.” He’s so trusting, but I’ve worked so hard to fall in line with what he’s after. I think also over the years we’ve kind of developed similar tastes. Some of it came about […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 29, 2011 -
A City Responds with a Viral Video
You may have seen this already — it’s the number 4 video on YouTube — but if you haven’t… After Newsweek dubbed the city of Grand Rapids, MI, “a dying city,” the city responded with a viral video. It’s a cover of Don McLean’s “American Pie,” and as both filmmaking and civic statement it’s astonishing.
by Scott Macaulay on May 28, 2011 -
MATT PYKE AND FRIENDS @GAITE LYRIQUE
Sheffield-based Matt Pyke makes digital art that’s rooted in the physical. In his show Super-Computer-Romantics, organic processes (growth, decay), nature, or simply natural actions (walking, running) shape computer-generated ones. A series of people — dancers, actually — struggle against a digital windstorm that blows them, literally, to bytes. A mesmerizing life-size wall-projected walking man, his footsteps providing the drumbeat for a slab of noisy electro, is a constant mutation as his body shapeshifts from diamonds to fur to rainbow-hued electric hair. In an alcove, a series of winter-y trees find their limbs illuminated with electronic leaves when you step into […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 27, 2011
